B-Side Guys

South Summit spent the better part of two years playing shows across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe before coming back to Blackbird Sound Studio in Perth to make their second record. That touring experience isn’t background detail. It’s the subject. “On The Dash” is the sound of a band that has learned to locate intimacy inside motion, the kind of closeness that forms specifically because two people are going somewhere together rather than staying anywhere.

The alternative R&B production keeps the track unhurried and close-miked, which suits the dashboard perspective of the title: not the destination, not the distance behind, just the view from right here, right now. The Perth five-piece recorded Run It Back, prioritizing feel over construction, playing together in the room and capturing the songs as they’d perform them live, and that approach is audible. The track doesn’t reach for anything. It settles into the moment it’s describing.

The debut album, The Bliss, debuted at number two on the ARIA Charts and established South Summit as one of Australia’s fastest-rising acts. The deliberate shift on Run It Back, trusting instinct over framework, is most evident here in the restraint. The band has the audience and the credibility to do something larger. They chose something smaller and more precise instead, which is its own kind of confidence.

The sexy, chill register the song occupies isn’t passive. It’s the particular alertness of someone paying attention to a moment they know is finite. The album’s title promises to run it back, to return to something worth revisiting. “On The Dash” makes the case for why.